Beyond recycling: Taking the next step

David WeintraubECo

Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, February 11, 2013 at 2:48 p.m.

When it comes to recycling, our county has much to be thankful for. We have a brand spanking new convenience center that recycles many of the things that were only a dream a few years ago, including computer electronics, batteries, most plastics and much more.

We can thank the wise folks at the county's engineering and solid waste departments as well as the foresight of the Henderson County Board of Commissioners for their support of recycling. And none of this would have been accomplished without the active engagement of citizen activists who labored for more than 20 years to reach this level of recycling nirvana.

However, as important as recycling is in protecting our environment, it is not enough. The reality is that 99 percent of the things we harvest, mine, process and transport are dumped within six months of their production as a result of the “disposable” society we live in and the constant pressure on us to buy the latest “thing” (iPhone, TV, car), otherwise we can't be happy.

No manner of recycling can keep up with this incredible amount of waste. And even if we recycle 90 percent of our waste, for every garbage can of household waste we produce, there are approximately 70 garbage cans worth of waste produced in order to make the products we buy.

A good example of this is the checkered history of bottled water. More than 85 million bottles of water are used every day in the U.S., and 38 billion single-use water bottles end up in U.S. landfills and waterways each year, damaging streams, lowering property values, leaching toxins into drinking water watersheds and harming wildlife.

Bottled water production, transportation and disposal require the use of more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, generating 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and enough fuel to power 1 million cars a year. More than 2.5 billion tons of plastic are used to produce single-use water bottles each year, resulting in more than 1.5 million tons of plastic waste. According to the Container Recycling, 90 percent of PET plastic bottles end up in landfills, where they take between 450 and 1,000 years to break down.

So why isn't recycling the answer? If we recycle our bottles, surely we've solved the environmental problem, right? Wrong. (You knew I was going to say that.) Currently only 7 percent of all plastics are recycled, compared to 34 percent of paper, 22 percent of glass and 30 percent of metals. However, even if we recycled more, plastics recycling only minimally reduces the amount of virgin resources used. When glass, paper and cans are recycled, they can theoretically become similar products and can be recycled over and over.

With plastics recycling, there is usually a single reuse, so in essence plastics are only down-cycled. In other words, they are converted into other items such as carpeting or traffic strips, which end up in landfills after their useful life. The rest of the bottles are shipped to China or India where they become mountains of trash (i.e., someone else's problem).

An additional problem is one of perception. Many people wrongly believe that single-use water bottles are freely recyclable, so they buy more of them thinking they're not causing any harm (other than to their pocketbooks since bottled water costs thousands of times more than tap water), but they would be wrong. Of course, this doesn't even touch on the quality of the water in those bottles that remains mostly unregulated by the EPA or FDA, unlike tap water.

Of course, we weren't always a consumer-driven society. My grandma reused virtually everything she had; old dresses were sewn into curtains, old sheets became pillow cases for the couch or doilies for the table. An old World War II slogan characterized the different times: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or go without.”

So what can we do? One of the best options is to pre-cycle, which means consciously consider the things we buy. For instance, buying in bulk is often cheaper than buying packaged goods and eliminates wasteful packaging. Bringing containers to restaurants beats nonrecyclable to-go Styrofoam containers. Buying a water filter for your tap can make your water taste better, remove impurities and save hundreds of dollars while allowing you to replace water bottles with reusable bottles.

Up-cycling is a creative way of re-purposing containers for other uses such as decorating old spaghetti jars and turning them into coin banks, toilet paper rolls into pin cushions and jam jars into pen holders. Before you throw away appliances and electronics, don't get caught in the consumer trap of thinking you need to buy the latest model. Our community is blessed with shoe repairmen, appliance and computer repair shops and more. In conclusion, by all means recycle when you can. But don't just buy green, be green by not buying except when necessary. Reduce and reuse are the most important Rs in Recycling.

Finally, ECO's Recycling Committee and our Green Energy and Sustainability Committee not only help to foster recycling but look at how we can become a more sustainable community. Call ECO at 692-0385 to get involved.

<p>When it comes to recycling, our county has much to be thankful for. We have a brand spanking new convenience center that recycles many of the things that were only a dream a few years ago, including computer electronics, batteries, most plastics and much more.</p><p>We can thank the wise folks at the county's engineering and solid waste departments as well as the foresight of the Henderson County Board of Commissioners for their support of recycling. And none of this would have been accomplished without the active engagement of citizen activists who labored for more than 20 years to reach this level of recycling nirvana.</p><p>However, as important as recycling is in protecting our environment, it is not enough. The reality is that 99 percent of the things we harvest, mine, process and transport are dumped within six months of their production as a result of the “disposable” society we live in and the constant pressure on us to buy the latest “thing” (iPhone, TV, car), otherwise we can't be happy.</p><p>No manner of recycling can keep up with this incredible amount of waste. And even if we recycle 90 percent of our waste, for every garbage can of household waste we produce, there are approximately 70 garbage cans worth of waste produced in order to make the products we buy.</p><p>A good example of this is the checkered history of bottled water. More than 85 million bottles of water are used every day in the U.S., and 38 billion single-use water bottles end up in U.S. landfills and waterways each year, damaging streams, lowering property values, leaching toxins into drinking water watersheds and harming wildlife.</p><p>Bottled water production, transportation and disposal require the use of more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, generating 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and enough fuel to power 1 million cars a year. More than 2.5 billion tons of plastic are used to produce single-use water bottles each year, resulting in more than 1.5 million tons of plastic waste. According to the Container Recycling, 90 percent of PET plastic bottles end up in landfills, where they take between 450 and 1,000 years to break down.</p><p>So why isn't recycling the answer? If we recycle our bottles, surely we've solved the environmental problem, right? Wrong. (You knew I was going to say that.) Currently only 7 percent of all plastics are recycled, compared to 34 percent of paper, 22 percent of glass and 30 percent of metals. However, even if we recycled more, plastics recycling only minimally reduces the amount of virgin resources used. When glass, paper and cans are recycled, they can theoretically become similar products and can be recycled over and over.</p><p>With plastics recycling, there is usually a single reuse, so in essence plastics are only down-cycled. In other words, they are converted into other items such as carpeting or traffic strips, which end up in landfills after their useful life. The rest of the bottles are shipped to China or India where they become mountains of trash (i.e., someone else's problem).</p><p>An additional problem is one of perception. Many people wrongly believe that single-use water bottles are freely recyclable, so they buy more of them thinking they're not causing any harm (other than to their pocketbooks since bottled water costs thousands of times more than tap water), but they would be wrong. Of course, this doesn't even touch on the quality of the water in those bottles that remains mostly unregulated by the EPA or FDA, unlike tap water.</p><p>Of course, we weren't always a consumer-driven society. My grandma reused virtually everything she had; old dresses were sewn into curtains, old sheets became pillow cases for the couch or doilies for the table. An old World War II slogan characterized the different times: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or go without.”</p><p>So what can we do? One of the best options is to pre-cycle, which means consciously consider the things we buy. For instance, buying in bulk is often cheaper than buying packaged goods and eliminates wasteful packaging. Bringing containers to restaurants beats nonrecyclable to-go Styrofoam containers. Buying a water filter for your tap can make your water taste better, remove impurities and save hundreds of dollars while allowing you to replace water bottles with reusable bottles.</p><p>Up-cycling is a creative way of re-purposing containers for other uses such as decorating old spaghetti jars and turning them into coin banks, toilet paper rolls into pin cushions and jam jars into pen holders. Before you throw away appliances and electronics, don't get caught in the consumer trap of thinking you need to buy the latest model. Our community is blessed with shoe repairmen, appliance and computer repair shops and more. In conclusion, by all means recycle when you can. But don't just buy green, be green by not buying except when necessary. Reduce and reuse are the most important Rs in Recycling.</p><p>Finally, ECO's Recycling Committee and our Green Energy and Sustainability Committee not only help to foster recycling but look at how we can become a more sustainable community. Call ECO at 692-0385 to get involved.</p>